In His Footsteps: St. Patrick of Ireland is one of the world's most popular saints. Apostle of Ireland, born at Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton, in Scotland, in the year 387; died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, 17 March, 461. Along with St. Nicholas and St. Valentine, the secular world shares our love of these saints.
A gerund functions as a subject, object, or complement of the predicate. A participle functions as a modifier that expresses source, process, or function of the (head) noun. Beginning a movie requires a click of the start button. The student was in a beginning film-making class.
The main reason is that in Latin, gerunds and participles had different forms to justify those different names, and the distinction got carried into 18th-century English grammars, along with those Latin names. If you think thatâs a silly and outdated reason, youâre not alone.